Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/109821
16 energy goals related to economics, environmental impact, export and rate impact. At the time, it had a database of resource options, but with limited analytical capabilities. So BC Hydro partnered with Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. (KWL) and used GIS technology to ���see��� the database geographically, allowing analysis that had never before been possible. Using the technology, BC Hydro found economic and renewable electricity-generation sites and analyzed their suitability and associated costs in a fraction of the time it would have previously taken. Integrated Resource Plan BC Hydro was created 50 years ago to plan, develop and deliver clean and reliable electricity to homes and businesses throughout most of the province of British Columbia. Through time, clean, renewable electricity generation became more important, and, after the Clean Energy Act passed in 2010, BC Hydro was required to submit the IRP to the British Columbia Minister of Energy and Mines. The IRP needed to describe how BC Hydro will meet British Columbia���s 16 energy goals, grouped into four categories: 1. Ratepayer impact 2. Economic development 3. Clean/renewable/demand-side-management and greenhouse-gas impacts 4. Export The IRP needed to balance cost-effective electricitygeneration additions to meet customer needs over the next 20-30 years, while taking into account First Nation and stakeholder input as well as addressing environmental concerns. BC Hydro started the IRP by updating its database of potential electricity-generation options. The goals related to this update included the following: and economic-development aspects. These potential resources then were assessed for their ability to meet customers��� electricity needs by comparing the new and existing resources against the potential future demands over the 20-year IRP. Reliability, costs, risks, environmental attributes and economic development were among the traits compared. In the past, all identified resource options had been inventoried in the Microsoft Access-based Resource Options Database (RODAT). However, BC Hydro recognized the importance of spatial location, clustering of electricity-generation options, and stakeholder and First Nations engagement, so it commissioned KWL to develop a new database: the Resource Options Mapping Database (ROMAP). ROMAP was to be a spatially enabled GIS version of RODAT, which meant it could better analyze options electricity in British Columbia through clean or renewable resources. greenhouse-gas reduction targets. creation and retention of jobs. communities through the use and development of clean or renewable resources. out the use of nuclear power. Evolution of BC Hydro Databases To update the database, BC Hydro looked at various new resource options, focusing on their characteristics and the technical, financial, environmental ���GIS-based density analyses show the potential installed capacity (top) and energy (bottom) throughout British Columbia, helping BC Hydro locate ���hot spots��� where it���s economical to expand current infrastructure. F E B R U A R Y 2 O 1 3 / W W W . G E O P L A C E . C O M 19